Tag: magic transfer

Yes, it’s the quickly waning Winter’s first Fin, coming so early it feels wrong. Not because we haven’t dealt with 10-episode series before, but because I was having so much fun! KonoSuba really made the most of its ten, though, cementing its title of Best Comedy of 2016 So Far. And it ends in appropriately grand fashion.

The biggest threat to the Beginner’s City arrives just in time for the finale, but like every other threat before it, we’re not meant to take it all that seriously. Instead, it becomes a matter of now if but how the spidery bastard will be taken down, and at what cost.

While vowing to face the Destroyer head-on as a knight, Darkness reveals her true name (Dustiness Ford Lala(or Rara)tina) and status (rich girl whose family is repsonsible for the protection of the city and its environs). She gives a pretty cool speech, but the serious tone is nicely undercut by Kazuma scoffing at the silly, cliche name, as he should.

It’s interesting, then, that when I look back, Darkness didn’t actually do anything to defeat the Destroyer. Instead, it’s up to the other girls—Aqua, Megumin, and Wiz—with Kazuma offering moral support.

The girls aren’t sure their abilities will be enough against the hulking foe, but once Aqua gets into the spirit of things (and yells loudly enough), the Destroyer’s shield shears off like a tissue in the wind.

With the shield down, it’s Megumin’s turn to contribute, and surprisingly, she forms a tandem with Wiz in launching dual explosion spells at the Destroyer, knocking it on its ass.

Darkness stands unmoving in front of the thing as it skids toward her, but like I said, doesn’t really do anything (but looks cool not doing it!) With that, Megumin is down, as expected.

But in keeping with the show’s spirit of lampooning every aspect of RPG fantasy shows, the battle is Far From Over, as the Destroyer activates a self-destruct countdown that will wipe out the town. Darkness jumps at the chance to be ravaged and defiled by whatever is inside the mobile fortress, and rushes in alone without a plan.

I guess this is when Darkness comes in handy, as she motivates her fellow adventurers to, well, venture in behind her. Mostly though, the men of the town don’t want the Succubus brothel destroyed, which is an honest motivation! It’s good to know what you want to protect.

Kazuma takes a reluctant Aqua by the hand and goes in, and it isn’t long before they find the Destroyer’s creator, having died in his chair long ago, a journal handily nearby to offer some insights about his life. Strangely, Aqua determines he died without regrets.

She learns why when she reads the journal: the dude was a scientist or engineer who didn’t expect his team to procure the coronatite core he needed to complete the Destroyer…but they did, so he finished it.

It went out of control and destroyed the world, with him trapped inside, but for whatever reason, the situation doesn’t really bother him, and he dies satisfied and fulfilled…The End.

This is the part of the episode I laughed at most, not just because of how hilariously absurd a perversion of the “confessionary journal” trope this was, but because the narrator’s voice and delivery is so funny, as is the reaction by Aqua, Kazuma, etc.

To stop the self-destruct, they have to transport the coronatite out, but to do so Wiz needs a lot of magic and life energy. Kazuma volunteers, hoping the experience will “make him an adult” (something he proudly reports to his parents in his head), but Wiz doesn’t french him; she just sucks him dry until he looks like a shriveled old man.

It does the trick, though: Wiz transports the core away (to an ominously random location). But it still isn’t over, because without the core the Destroyer starts to overheat, which will eventually engulf the city in flames. Kazuma’s solution: blow it up before it does.

Only problem is, Wiz is out of magic, as is Kazuma (back to normal!), and Aqua can’t transfer her holy magic to the lich without making her disappear. Enter Megumin (on the back of a helper), who won’t disappear if she gets magic from Aqua.

Kazuma serves as the conduit between the two, and once Megumin has what she needs, she lets loose her biggest boom yet, a blast that sure as hell looks like it consumes a good portion of the town…only it doesn’t, which is good!

After that last blast, the Destroyer really is defeated for good. Victory! Time to celebrate, and for some guys to get married!

The party’s mansion escapes the crisis unscathed; Aqua has her patch of grass to nap on; Megumin has what looks like a new staff; Darkness can rest easy her town is safe; and even though he’s been through a lot, Kazuma is finally upbeat, considering everything that’s happend to be a trial to prepare him for the real adventures he’s about to begin.

Except that doesn’t happen. Instead, authorities arrive to arrest Kazuma on the charge of subversion of the state. That coronatite core he had Wiz teleport away to a random location? That random location was the overlord’s mansion. Furthermore, he said he’d take responsibility. Looks like his formidable luck ran out at the worst possible moment. But of course it did!

KonoSuba was a fine collection of fantasy anime send-ups, which never felt like it was trying too hard. It was a show with a plot you could completely brush off because you knew full well it wasn’t what mattered.

And while the characters weren’t the deepest in the world, they were satisfyingly specific, rootable, and never failed to entertain. I’m sad to say goodbye, but it seems there will be a second season down the road, so it’s really just a see-you-later to this Wonderful World.